Hong Kong is lauded across Asia for many things, not least its leading position in the region's entertainment industry — the most recent addition to the film scene is the brand new Cinema City Langham Place

Without question, Hong Kong is one of the most dynamic cities in the world. Renowned as a glamorous and exciting Asian metropolis, it holds huge allure for tourists from around the region — primarily due to its reputation as a food, shopping and entertainment hub. Mega shopping malls abound, each vying to attract consumers with an array of offerings — like Mongkok's famed Langham Place mall.

Here, Pegasus Entertainment has launched its first cineplex, appropriately named Cinema City Langham Place. Intended to become the company's iconic flagship in Hong Kong, Alexander Wong Architects was tasked with devising a unique and organic design theme for the multiscreen cinema.

Cinema City Langham Place features Hong Kong's first and only 4DX cinema theatre, which enables a motion picture presentation to be augmented with environmental effects such as seat motion, wind, rain, fog, lights, and scents (Photo courtesy of Alexander Wong Architects)

Widely acknowledged for setting fashionable lifestyle benchmarks in Asia, Hong Kong is synonymous with re-interpreting world cultures — nowhere more so than in Mongkok, where international brands are regularly transformed into a part of the city's very own culture, often generating new subcultures that become a part of Hong Kong's identity. In addition, Mongkok has provided the setting for many iconic images in legendary home-grown films, so the goal was to create a unique image for Cinema City Langham Place that will truly be international and local at the same time.

Conceived with a futuristic approach, Alexander Wong Architects set out to create a landmark inspired by seminal films of world renowned Hong Kong directors such as Johnnie To and Wong Kar Wai. In fact, Wong's 1988 debut film, As Tears Go By, is also called Mongkok Carmen in Cantonese, while his futuristic film 2046 (2004) also greatly influenced what turned out to be an homage to Hong Kong's bygone New Wave Cinema with an unexpected sci-fi twist.

The entrance to the theatre is bracketed by giant Cinema City logos which shimmer with coloured crystals on both sides of the walls (Photo courtesy of Alexander Wong Architects)

Dubbed 'Carmen Futura', this revolutionary and unique theme makes itself immediately known even upon approaching Cinema City Langham Place, exuding futuristic glamour with a giant iCloud LED screen showing the latest movie trailers. The entrance is bracketed by giant Cinema City logos with shimmering coloured crystals on either side; inside, a unique Carmen box office counter is truly sensual in form.

In the Lobby Futura, a giant curved LED display is placed next to the Morph Bar, whose curves are echoed in the spirals across the bronze-coloured ceiling (Photo courtesy of Alexander Wong Architects)

In stark contrast to the glowing jewel tones outside, the black and white Gravity washrooms are starkly monochromatic, softened by the flowing, curved lines of the Tron hand basins and futuristic street lamps (Photo courtesy of Alexander Wong Architects)

This is a preview of the "A fairytale in Mongkok” article from the April 2015 issue of Perspective magazine.